EP 295: Sam Watson — The Fastest Climber in the World on His Routines, Mental Process, & the Olympics

The Nugget Climbing Podcast

Steven Dimmitt

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4.2 • 576 Ratings

🗓️ 23 March 2026

⏱️ 115 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sam Watson is the current world record holder in speed climbing (4.64 seconds) and an Olympic Bronze medalist. We talked about breaking the world record in Paris, how he makes a living, building a social media following in China, the future potential of speed climbing, recovery routines and tools, chess, favorite books, airport stoicism, and more.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey friends, as you know, I've been collecting nuggets from the world's best climbers for the past six years, and I finally took the time to synthesize all of that great advice and put it together into the ultimate resource for climbers who want to improve and unlock their full potential in climbing. I made a free masterclass with some of the best nuggets
0:22.7	I've learned along the way.
0:24.5	I'll tell you more about it later in this episode.
0:27.3	Enjoy the show.
0:30.9	Hello friends and welcome to the Nugget Climbing podcast.
0:34.3	Today I am joined by the fastest climber in the world, Sam Watson. Sam is the current
0:39.9	world record holder in speed climbing, 4.64 seconds to climb a 15 meter wall, nearly 50 feet. It's
0:50.0	insane to think about it. Many of us watch Sam grow to international fame in the lead up to the Paris Olympics, where he
0:56.8	ended up breaking a new world record and winning the bronze medal.
1:00.7	We talk about the uniqueness of that combination in this episode.
1:05.1	Sam was great.
1:05.7	I really enjoyed talking to him.
1:07.0	He's clearly very intelligent.
1:08.9	He thinks a lot about his process.
1:10.5	He really loves to give the
1:12.3	play by play and take us behind the scenes of the Olympics and how some of his most important
1:18.3	races played out. I think we'll be seeing a lot more of this guy over the next few years.
1:23.2	Please enjoy Sam Watson.
1:38.5	Cause, cast, cast. No one can do it like we do it like we do it like Please enjoy Sam Watson. You just got back from the Winter Olympics in Milan, right?
1:42.5	Yes, I was there as a spectator, and it was one of the best trips I've ever taken for sure.
1:47.7	So basically what I did was I split my offseason from end of September through start of May of the next year into two distinct blocks.
1:57.4	And so I had the really hard strength type of training where your body's very
	...

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